Through my journey of visiting and talking with some of my favorite breweries across the state of Arizona I have learned many things:

I actually DO like sour beers

I can drink about 12 tasters and 1 pint during a podcast interview

I should NOT drink about 12 tasters and 1 pint during a podcast interview

And finally, opening up a brewery is HARD WORK!

If you are lucky enough to see them in action while you are visiting you can easily see that these guys and girls are busting their asses while at the same time sweating their asses off in their effort to make you the best damn beer you've ever tasted. But making beer is only a small portion of that. First you have to choose a name. Easy enough, right? Not so much. Just ask Steve McFate. Once you have a name then you have to either build or redesign your space to accommodate a commercial brewery. And many of these people are doing the work all themselves. So after working a normal shift at their regular job they are spending hours afterwards putting in the blood and sweat to literally build their dream (listen to the Crooked Tooth episode to hear Ben Vernon talk about this). The list goes on an on. And THEN you get to opening day which in actually when the REAL work begins: staying open and successful. Through this show is have developed the utmost respect for the dudes and dudettes who work so hard to play their part in what I consider one of the coolest sections of society: the craft beer world.

With that said I developed this idea to interview someone through their path toward opening a brewery so that listeners can get an idea of how the whole process works and help this aspiring brewery owner gain a following so that anticipation build and opening day brings a lot of excitement.

Enter Justin Cross. The Man of Many Projects. Fitness Beast. Home Brew Wizard. I initially connected with Justin via his Instagram @the_alpha_ale. Justin allows his followers to see very step of his process and is great at explaining the whole process simply so that anyone can understand. and he makes amazing beer. After hanging out with Justin a few times in the real world I realized that this dude is determined and is working his ass off to make his dream happen. And he is doing it the right way: by being a good person and work to improve the lives of others.

Through this miniseries we are going to follow Justin on his journey toward opening up his brewery. In Part 1 we are going to get a little back history with his experience in the brewing world as well as the "why" behind what he is doing.